Board officers elected at meeting

Tuesday

Jan 21, 2014 at 7:19 PM

Karen Balice Gregory was re-elected as Ionia Public Schools Board of Education president. Balice Gregory was nominated by Ionia Public Schools Board of Education Trustee Sandi Townsend and was supported by Ionia Public Schools Board of Education Trustee Sheri Scheurer.

Mattie Cookmattie.cook@sentinel-standard.com

Karen Balice Gregory was re-elected as Ionia Public Schools Board of Education president. Balice Gregory was nominated by Ionia Public Schools Board of Education Trustee Sandi Townsend and was supported by Ionia Public Schools Board of Education Trustee Sheri Scheurer.

Scheurer nominated Roger Hull for re-election as Ionia Public Schools Board of Education Vice President. This was seconded by Townsend, and Hull has been re-elected.

In addition, Cathy Hoppough was re-elected as secretary of the board and Scheurer was re-elected as treasurer.

After the meeting, Ionia Public Schools Board of Education Trustee Walt Downes sent an email to board members and Ionia Public Schools Superintendent Pat Batista announcing his resignation from the board.

"His resignation was very unexpected, but we appreciate his years of service on the board," said Balice Gregory.

Downes' position on the board will be posted and interviews will be held. Downes' term on the board was scheduled to end in November, so the candidate will be filling the position until them.

"We'll interview candidates and decide as a board on who will fill in. We've had to do this before in the past, but it's not common," Balice Gregory said.

Regular monthly meetings will be held at the same time, date and place. These are at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the Ionia Educational Center, located at 250 E. Tuttle Rd.

Special meetings will begin at 5:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month.

"We'll try this, and if it doesn't work out for the majority, then we can change it later," Balice Gregory said.

Students from Boyce Elementary School in the classes of Tiffany Kreager and Laurie Sykes were part of a curriculum showcase during Monday evening's Ionia Public Schools Board of Education meeting.

Students showcased their skills with a Zoo-phonics demonstration. Zoo-phonics is a reading and spelling program that teaches children English language fundamentals. In addition, students demonstrated reading words and sentences.

"We want to show what we do with Zoo-phonics because it's such an important component of what we do in the classroom," said Sykes.

Kreager and students used a word list, containing words such as "ad," "had" and "sad," to demonstrate skills. After the students sounded out the words, they had an opportunity to showcase their knowledge by using the words from the list in a sentence.

With this program, the students are learning nouns, verbs and adjectives, according to Kreager.

In addition, the students further displayed their skills by reading a book to one of the members of the Ionia Public Schools Board of Education or members of the administrative team.

Carol Sanocki was recognized as a community partner for Ionia Public Schools during the meeting. Sanocki has knit and donated hats to Ionia Public School students for the past five years. In that time, Sanocki has knit and donated 500 hats to students within the district.

"The good thing is, we've heard she has no intention to stop. She's done this since her retirement from Firstbank," said Balice Gregory.

In addition, Sandy Brands and Deb Hausserman of Firstbank West Michigan were commended for their advocating of the Mitten Tree project, an annual fundraiser.

"Deb and Sandy's nurturing of the Mitten Tree at their Firstbank offices has yielded great products. Sandy and Deb recently delivered hundreds of pairs of mittens, plus scarves and hats, donated by staff and customers," Balice Gregory said.

A discussion of online courses was led by Ionia Public Schools Associate Superintendent Ben Kirby.

"A letter is going out to parents next week that's reflective of the governor's anywhere, anytime, any place mantra for education," Kirby said.

Under this system, Michigan students fifth through twelfth grades will have the opportunity to take two online courses per term. The cost of these courses will be paid by the district.

"If the student wants to experience online learning, the school must compensate for that experience," said Kirby.

There are reasons why the student may be denied access to a particular online course; for instance, if the class was not for credit, if the student had already taken the class or if it did not comply with their graduation requirements or career interests, according to Kirby.

"The decision to deny is not taken lightly. The student can appeal for the superintendent of the intermediate school district, which in our case, would be Bob Kjolhede," said Kirby.

"So, let's say a student knows one week into a course that they don't like it, do we still pay?" Scheurer inquired.

Kirby responded that 80 percent of the funds for the course are due at registration and that the remaining 20 percent of the cost is due when the student successfully completes a course.

Balice Gregory inquired as to whether students in the Ionia Public Schools district could utilize materials from the Ionia Public Schools Virtual Career Center if they opted to take online classes.

"The short answer is 'no,' these are two different entities," Kirby said.

In addition, during a discussion regarding collective bargaining arrangements, the board came to the consensus that discussions would being without an attorney present.

The Ionia Public Schools Board of Education can begin collective bargaining proceedings without an attorney present, but cannot tell other parties involved that they cannot have an attorney present, said Batista.

Batista reminded the board that in collective bargaining, she will serve as the head negotiator.

The board opted not to pursue collaborative bargaining training.

The next regular meeting for the Ionia Public Schools Board of Education will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 in room 304 in the Montcalm Community College Conference Room, located in the Ionia Educational Center.